


Introduction

by The_Lich_Queen



Series: 100 Themes Challenge -V1- [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24302209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lich_Queen/pseuds/The_Lich_Queen
Summary: Ness is a human in a skeleton dungeon, looking for the way out. He meets a young skeleton, Papyrus for the first time.
Series: 100 Themes Challenge -V1- [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1754452
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

Ness wanders through the skeleton dungeon, carefully looking around while holding his breath.

An attack had separated him from his guild members.

There was a hero who fought with a short sword along with side magic. A witch who cast spells with amazing power. A priest who healed in a blink of an eye. An armoured knight with a long double-edged sword. Also, twins, one was an assassin and other was a thief. Then was the only old person in their party, who fought with his bare hands. And a monster tamer.

Ness was an archer ...at the moment; and normally was at the background, backing up his party. His speed could rival an assassin or ninja when he jumps away or sideways from the monsters.

What his guild members did not know, was that he did train as both ninja and assassin. And could wield many different types of sword. Could cast many spells and make strong potions- he was not an upfront fighter, so would never be able to battle with his hands or legs. As for healing... that was was out of the question- since Ness practised dark arts before, light arts like healing was out of reach.

But archery he found that he liked the best... however his thirst for knowledge nagged at him so it did not end there. So now he was learning something else.

That something else was his training as a summoner. It was much harder than a monster tamer since these monsters had been enslaved since birth; the ones he summoned through magic circles were wild, only enslaved by a powerful spell for a limited time. If he went past that limit the monster could turn on him.

A person had to have a lot of MP to be able to do this. Ness would hide the fact that he was so high in MP because unskilled adventurers would keep coming up to him for party requests. It often leads to disappointment since he was a jack of all trades but a master of none.

Ness glances down the next tunnel. The dungeon was silent, there were no skeletons about.

The guild had made the mistake of camping into the dungeon at the hero's insistence; no one complained to the hero and he was their party leader, so all agreed to this.

Ness had not gotten undressed, only noobs would undress for sleep in a dungeon.

It happened. A skeleton's screech filled the little room they had found, causing them all to up and cover their ears. Never do you want to hear a skeleton's screech, it was one of the worst noises in the world.

Soon many skeletons descended upon them, making them run without thinking. By the time Ness noticed that no one was with him, he was already lost and without a map.

Ness glares at nothing, all the members should have had a map, he did not understand why only the priest had one. Then again, nothing about this quest made any sense.

This skeleton dungeon was out the way of many towns and villages, so why make the long trip to come here and kill them.

Movement caught Ness's eye, he ducks down moulding his body close to the walls.

Then a small skeleton wanders into his line of sight, it had a reddish-orange scarf around its neck and wrap around its pelvis, in its hand was a wooden sword. It was moving slowly and carefully down the hallway, shaking so hard had it was rattling loudly.

'Perfect.' Ness thinks with a smirk, 'I can use this monster as a meat shield ... er, bone shield.'

The way summoning works was that one had to have a magic circle and cast with the monster kind in mind, they transfer a random monster from the kind unless they learn the name; they also had more power over them and keep them captured and enslaved for life.

'If I learn its name,' Ness mind goes on, 'I can summon it. It will be mine. And I can use it to get out of here.' With a nod, the black hair blue eyed archer makes a move forward.

The skeleton freezes, then slowly turn.

"Hello, young one," Ness greets with a grin, with one hand in his pocket and the other giving a light wave, he made himself completely relaxed, "how are you?"

The small skeleton blinks. It smiles brightly at him and rushes over to him, standing right in front of him.

"A HUMAN!" The skeleton shouts out, "AND A VERY NICE ONE! I AM WELL! THANK YOU FOR ASKING! HOW ARE YOU?"

"Heh hehe." Ness laughs feeling nervous but never showing it on his face, being outwardly calm; he had never in his life actually spoken to a monster, while he had heard them speak with each other before attacking so knew they could, he just never bothered, "er... fine thank you. But I am a little lost... could you show me a way out?"

"IT IS GOOD YOU ARE WELL!" the skeleton replies, looking excited about something, "SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE LOST! BUT NEVER FEAR! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN LEAN YOU SAFELY AN EXIT!"

Ness stood there, dumbfounded. The skeleton had just given his name.

Staring at the happy skeleton, he thought better in summoning him, after all, it seems he was leaning him out without a problem.

'Or is he?' Ness thought darkly. The skeleton darts forward grabbing the former assassin's hand, thankfully he was trained to see an attack and deeded this as nothing, but the monster did not know this. 'Could have ended up dead at least five times by now. This skeleton is far too trusting'

Now that he was walking side by side with the skeleton, he could see that the top of it skull came up to his shoulders. This means nothing, Ness was a short stumpy man, it just meant that the skeleton was younger than he first thought.

As they went Papyrus chatted happily nonstop, all Ness did was a nod and mumbles a few questions and voices a little on some subjects. The skeleton held on tighter and tighter the further they went, causing Ness to glance around, looking for an attack.

It felt very wrong to hold onto a skeleton hand, but he could feel a warmth humming through it, so he had quickly gotten over it.

"HERE WE ARE!" Papyrus announces gesturing to a staircase with his free hand. Ness could see sunlight pouring down, "THANK YOU!"

Ness frowns lightly, "For what?"

"FOR LISTENING TO ME! AND NOT PUSHING ME AWAY!" Papyrus answers, gazing down at their joined hands. "NO ONE LIKES ME!" suddenly losing his happy tone, "NO ONE LISTENS TO ME!" tears began filling the eye sockets, shocking Ness, "NO ONE WANTS ME HERE!"

"...huh?" Ness said dumbly, shaking his head, "Why? You're the coolest skeleton I know."

"REALLY!?" Papyrus asks hopefully, staring up at him with orange flickering in their depths.

"Yeah. You are great," Ness says honesty with a gently smile, looking back and actually realising that the skeleton's company had not been bad. "Sorry to hear you're having a bad time... er... wish I could help, but I don't know how your system works so there's nothing I can do."

Papyrus brings a skelly hand over his skull, and somehow wipes the wet tears away, "THANK YOU SO MUCH!" he turns to stares back at the way they, "WHEN I HEARD THAT HUMANS HAD COME INTO OUR HOME! I THOUGHT THIS COULD BE A CHANCE TO PROVE MYSELF! BUT THEN YOU ASKED HOW I WAS! AND THAT TOUCHED THE CORE OF MY SOUL MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!"

Ness felt an overwhelming amount of guilt. He was going to enslave Papyrus, '...don't think I can now...'

"WAIT! WHAT ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS?" Papyrus asks staring with side sockets, then turning to Ness, "YOU CAME WITH OTHERS RIGHT!"

"Yeah," Ness confirms, "But those guys are way stronger than me. Bet they're already waiting for me up top."

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" Papyrus asks softy, making Ness blink at the sudden change of subject.

'Do not give him your real name,' Ness thinks darkly, 'this may have been what he was waiting for!' The human hums for a moment, then smiles, "Just call me Sans."

"SANS? THAT IS A COMMON SKELETON'S NAME!" Papyrus said looking amazed, "ARE YOU A SKELETON!"

"heh. Nope, sorry bro." The newly dubbed Sans said with a grin.

"BRO?" Papyrus cries out in joy, holding onto Ness' hand even more tightly. "CAN I CALL YOU BROTHER? PLEASE SANS!"

"Sure why not?" Ness said with a grin, finding this whole thing amusing now, "Listen, bro, I do have to go now."

Papyrus's other hand wrapped around his hand to join the other, Ness frowns down at his trapped hand, then looks at the skeleton.

"I'm gonna need my hand back if I'm gonna leave bro," Ness says pointing to the sunlight.

"I AM TRULY SORRY BROTHER!" Papyrus said with no emotion in his voice.

"It's alright just let go a-" Ness began but his words died in his throat; he was surrounded by skeleton warriors.

"I AM TRULY SORRY!" Papyrus said again, never letting go of his hand.

"Wow! Guess you've proved yourself," Ness answers with a laugh, "Well done bro."

Papyrus's eye sockets began to glow bright orange, it cast no shadows but shone out for all to see.

Ness turns away from this unworldly light, to sees the oncoming skeletons. He knew this was it, there was no time to cast nor get his bow, his mind was blank of ideas.

Then there was a blow on the right side of his head, the last thing he saw was Papyrus's waiting arms ready to catch him.


	2. Chapter 2

Ness awake, blinking he notices that he was feeling completely fine. Like he had just been healed.

Raising his head from his chest, he glances up and sideways, where his wrists were chained, then downward and sideways to see his ankles the same- so that he was standing in a starjump position against a wall.

Ness's eyes widen when he looks around him, all his party members were chained around the walls with him, and this was a circular room, meaning he could see them all.

The hero was glaring at the only door, talking loudly to his party, telling them not to give up hope, that they could escape.

Ness always liked people who believed they could overcome impossible odds. Even though he was not like that himself.

Ness knew that witch was mumbling and cursing, but no words were formed because her mouth was covered.

The priest next to her had his eyes shut, whispering the same things over and over. There was no doubt in Ness's mind, that this was because of the fact they had been all stripped naked. A priest had to remain pure in everything they did.

The knight was studying even inch of the room, carefully taking in every detail.

Ness almost grin at this, betting that he had already thought of a way out but was just waiting for the right moment.

The same thing could be said about the hanging assassin and thief, if not for magic runes been written on their chest, keeping their stamina or something else down.

The old man who fought barehanded, also had his eyes closed, however, Ness was sure had he was just meditating until someone freed them.

The monster tamer looked the worst since they seemed to be the only one not to be healed. This made Ness frown.

"Finally awake Archer?" Hero shouts when he sees him, smiling at him, "good I was getting worried!"

"He always sleeps long," Assassin snaps back, she glares lightly at Hero with rosy cheeks, everyone but the hero knew she liked him, "told you. Don't worry about him."

But everyone knew that Ness was the hero's favourite for some reason.

"..heh, yeah, I'm fine Hero," Ness answers his leader, no one captured by monster spoke anyone's real name and the monster's normally only know Hero's nicknames too.

Suddenly the door opens and in comes three tall skeletons, making the party members fall silent. The one in the middle of the two behind him was known. This monster was classed as a boss monster:

**[Boss Monster:** _Gaster_ **]**

Gaster pauses in the centre of the room, allowing the group to stare at this boss- he was wearing white robes that were pushed tight to his form by thin ropes, with no weapons in sight. His cracked skull never moves, but his sockets seemed to gaze at each member.

The boss then walks straight to Ness, coming to a stop in front of him. The other two came round Gaster and began unchaining him. A loud sound was heard behind the skeleton but Ness could no longer see.

The two skeletons drag him almost carefully over to the centre to the room, which two more skeletons was, setting up some sort of table.

Ness was lifted by Gaster himself onto the table. He sat there staring at his ankles being chained in.

The archer just blinked in confusion, why were these monsters able to move him so easily with no fight from him. A hand touches his shoulder, blinking at Gaster he watches as the skeleton gently pushes him back until he was laying and staring at the ceiling.

"...what's happening to me?" Ness asks out loud, "Why can't I fight back?"

That question seemed to float on the air for a second then all his party -save for the witch, who could only glare and monster tamer, who it seemed was too hurt- began shouting at the monsters. The hero's voice he heard over the others.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM YOU MONSTER!?" Hero shouts angrily.

"Knew he would not go willingly!" Thief screams aloud in outrage.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Priest screams like a woman, being the youngest in the group, his voice had not fully broken, so sometimes it sounded off when he raised it.

"I will end you." Knight hisses.

"RELEASE ME BEAST!" Fighter snaps, "LET ME SHOW YOU A REAL FIGHT!"

"Don't worry Archer!" Assassin calls to him, "We will save you!"

The monster tamer remains silent. Staring at the whole thing with a nasty smile.

"SILENCE!" Tamer shouts, at last, making all members stare at him, wondering if he had a plan. The monsters paid no attention to him however, continuing with chaining Ness or moving strange objects into the room.

Tamer turns to look at Gaster, "We had a deal."

A cold feeling washes over Ness, turning his head to look at Hero, he could see the horror in his eyes at the situation.

'Now that I think about it,' Ness thinks to himself, 'it was him who insisted that we camp inside the dungeon and that it would be safe.'

"Yes. We did." Gaster smooth voice fills the room, "You bring us The TyDiHd Guild members as prisoners and bargaining chips against the Salt Kingdom, while you get their leader as your mate."

"WHAT!?" Assassin screams in shock and horror.

"That is right," Tamer said, he glances down then looks over at the hero, "I want to soul bond with him." he quickly stares at all of them, tears start pouring from his eyes and an almost mad smile appears, "but don't worry! It's just a trade deal they want! No harm will come to us! They're going to let us go after they sealed the deal and-"

"Shut. Up." Thief snaps glaring at Tamer with pure hatred, "Look around you! Do you truly think they are going to release us? What are they doing with Archer?"

Tamer slowly faces the table, meeting with Ness's eyes. Gaster moves in front, hiding his view.

Smiling at the tamer Gaster says, "We have chosen to take our deal a take further, to ensure that you get you bond."

"...what do you mean?" Tamer asks starting to shake.

"Well, our deal is only valid if you get your mate yes?" Gaster tells him slowly, that smile never leaving his jaws, Tamer nods at this, "Yes. And I do believe you told us that Hero is in love with Archer. Correct?"

There was a strange stillness to the room, Hero looked to Ness's widening eyes as he takes in this new information.

"Did you know, that if his heart belongs to another," Gaster goes on with a breathy laugh, "then the bonding may go amiss!" Tamer glances to Ness horror at what was going to happen, "if the bonding goes amiss then we have not completed our deal and we shall not get our trade."

"Wait! There no need-!" Tamer shouts out, but Ness's pain-filled screams drowned out his words.

All the guild could do was beg and plead, but these fell on empty ears because the skeleton just carried on slowly removing Ness's skin and carefully placing it a box beside them. His blood pours onto the table, which they now saw was dented in for the liquid to flow through and down into a large potion bottle underneath.

Soon Ness's voice began to horse to even scream, it was around this time that they finished removing his skin and started with his muscles.

This went on for ages. Ness was still alive and aware when they began removing his inner organs. In fact, he was still aware when they took out organs that should have ended it there and then.

Then it was was nothing but bloody bones.

Many skeletons came in and took the boxes out, the bottles out. It was Gaster himself that picks up his bones bridle style and walks out the room with him. Ness was aware of the crying, screams of his guildmates but found himself just not caring.

Ness was taken into a white marble room which was filled with steam, then he was lowered into warm waters.

"Close your eyes child," Gaster told him, "When you awaken-" but his eyes closed and he fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Ness blinks awake, he was laying on a comfortable bed.

"BROTHER!" A voice cries out and something jumps on him, "I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE AWAKE! YOU HAVE BEEN NAPPING FOR HOURS!"

"Papyrus," Gaster says from beside him, he was sitting on a seat next to the bed, "your brother is tried, give him a little space."

Papyrus gets off of him and gives him an epic pout, then grin boldly as Ness sits up in bed, rubbing his aching skull.

"*what happened?" Ness asks in utter confusion, "i feel like death warmed up."

Gaster smiles at him but says nothing.

"SANS! CAN I HUG YOU?" Papyrus asks, his hands wiggling in front of his chest.

"*...sure bro?" Ness or Sans says unsure, he looks from the two skeletons. The smaller leaps at him, giving him a big hug which he returns without a problem.

They stayed this way until Papyrus leans back enough just to stare at Sans's face.

"YOU ARE SANS! MY BROTHER!" Papyrus said to him, tear of happiness falling, "AND WE SHALL BE TOGETHER ALWAYS AND FOREVER!"

"*k. bro." Sans told him with promise.

"REALLY?" Papyrus pushes on.

"*always and forever bro. you and me." Sans told him with a truly grins, since his skull's jaws were fused for some reason, all he could do was smile or grin.

"I think you should let Sans rest now son," Gaster said pointedly looking at Papyrus, who nods and pouts again.

The skeleton brothers move away from each other, allowing Sans to lay back down. Papyrus just sat cross-legged next to him, then began an endless chatter.

Sans listened keenly to every word his brother said, his eternal patience never letting him become annoyed by this, only a few times did he speak and join in. Which Papyrus loved, soon they fell into a natural rhythm of chatter and while it seemed one-sided, it was actually balanced out fairly.

The pair seemed very very happy with each other and at peace.

There was a loud bang and skeletons warriors came marching in.

"The humans have escaped!" One told Gaster, who frowned in displeasure. Papyrus grabs hold of Sans pulling him up and into his chest.

"Children I will deal with this," Gaster says to them as he stood, "stay here," he looks directly at Papyrus, "never let them met."

The boss monster seemed the glides out of the room.

"FEAR NOT BROTHER!" Papyrus said after the door was shut, he jumps to his feet while still on the bed and stands in a heroic pose, "FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL NEVER LET THOSE HUMANS NEAR YOU AGAIN!"

"*... did something happen with me and the humans bro?" Sans asks with a sense of dread, yet his smile never moves, making Papyrus feel more at ease.

"WELL... IT..." Papyrus starts as he lowers his pose, he sighs deeply then drops down on he was eye level with Sans, "YOU WAS ON A MISSION! TO PRETEND TO BE HUMAN! AND GO INTO THEIR CITIES! TO DO THIS YOU CAST A FLESHY BODY ON YOUR BONES AND BRAINWASHED YOURSELF INTO BELIEVING YOU WERE A HUMAN!"

"*whoa." Sans mumbles blinking as he took in this new information.

"BUT SOMEHOW IT WENT WRONG!" Papyrus went on, looking like he was going to cry at this point, "AFTER THE TIME LIMIT ENDED! YOU DID NOT RETURN!"

Sans reaches over and pulls Papyrus into a hug, who hugged back eagerly.

"*sorry bro." Sans told him as he rocks his brother gently.

"YOU WERE GONE DO LONG! I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!" Papyrus said with a sniff, he did not bother wiping his eye sockets as tears pour down, "I MISSED YOU! ALWAYS WANTED YOU! ALWAYS! YOU FINALLY CAME HERE! WITH THOSE HUMANS! I COULD FINALLY HAVE YOU!"

Sans frowns at his wording, trying hard to piece together what had happened, to link anything within his mind but all was coming back blank.

"*i'm here now bro." Sans told him, "no need to cry."

Papyrus pulls back and smiles at him, this time wiping his eyes.

"YEAH! YOU ARE HERE!" Papyrus says in an odd tone, "AND NOTHING AND NO ONE CAN COME BETWEEN US!"

Sans nod at this, making Papyrus cry out in delight, he drove back into Sans's arms. Sans laughs at this display, finding his brother's behaviour cute.

"*never will anything come between us. and i'll never leave you." Sans vows; the two skeletons settle down, and tuck up against each other they fell asleep, safe in the knowledge that their father would protect them.


End file.
